back to article ModBook Mac tablet turns up in Blighty

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  1. Michael Habel
    IT Angle

    Where is....

    the Beef?!?!

    ...Alternatively where is it? (e.g. The Video)

  2. Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware (Written by Reg staff)


    Apologies for this - we're trying a new serving system and our coding chaps have mis-set a variable or something.

    Video now in place, via YouTube as before.

  3. Kwac

    how much?

    for a new screen after the inevitable connection with desk corner?

  4. david bates

    @Tony Smith

    Web tester - currently looking for next contract.

    You have my email address on file :)

  5. Mathew White
    Paris Hilton

    Price: eak!

    £2000 for a £719 laptop, outch.

    I hope you get the keyboard in a doggy bag.

    Im sure that paris has one.

  6. This post has been deleted by its author

  7. Player_16
    Jobs Halo

    @Andrew Langhor

    Well... Back in January 2007, Axiotron introduced a Modbook to Apple Inc... As time goes on...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    @Reg Hardware

    Me think-ist that tho are still missing a few keys - the download speed is something near 1800 baud.

  9. Another Anonymous Coward

    Consider the following:

    Wacom Cintiq 12wx: £800.

    Macbook: £719

    Ading £380 on top of that to put the 2 together isn't too bad.. the whole package is only 500g heavier than the cintiq. Not bad considering there's a whole entire computer and battery in there, and the screen is an inch bigger. Build quality looks decent from what I can see, too.. could really do with a review by someone who isn't also trying to flog it though. :P

    I would love one of these things, my cintiq is great, but not exactly portable thanks to the big thick wire coming out of it running to a clunky great box with 3 other big thick wires coming out of it.

    "portable digital sketchpad" is something pretty much any designer would love to have, gotta like the company for at least releasing the product that Apple's fanbase has been screaming at them to release for the last decade or so.

    Regular graphics tablets don't quite cut it for sketching. Pencil+paper is still superior, due to looking at where you're drawing, and being able to rotate the page while sketching. Unfortunately pencil + paper also requires the tedium of scanning in and cleaning up before it's useable in digital pieces.

    For people like animators who have to convert thousands and thousands of pencil drawings into digital files, hardware like this is brilliant... completely useless for the vast majority of the population.

    I smell yet another case of "specialist niche product released" news with "I'm not a specialist, therefore it's useless to everyone on the planet" comments. ;)

  10. Mike Flugennock
    Thumb Up

    this pisses me off even more...

    ...when I see how close it is to being my Newspad, at last, but...

    ...yeah, what about the screen corners? Is there any serious protection for that monitor, attachable or otherwise? (iirc, the original '2001' Newspad wasn't really a stylus-driven device) And, why isn't there an option to display the OS in 'portrait' mode, so it works more like a normal sheet of paper?

    Am I stuck with that little custom painting app, or can I draw/paint right into Photoshop or Illustrator?

    Where's my goddamn' Newspad, already?

  11. Tony Hoyle

    How much??

    2 grand? No way they're going to get people to pay that, even with an apple logo on it.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Price is nothing

    You must obey the dark loard and pay his prices.

  13. Simon Langley

    Apple cannot do anything about it

    I agree that they haven't integrated the digitiser very stylishly and also that it seems grossly overpriced, but Apple cannot do anything about it. There is nothing to stop anyone doing anything they like to an Apple machine once they have bought it as long as they don't claim that it's an Apple mod.

  14. jai

    Re: A few things...

    agreed, that's an ugly mofo piece of hardware

    i think i'd rather wait to see what piece of pure sex design Apple's engineers turn up instead

    still - i do like the idea and I think OS X is the idea OS for a touch screen interface

    that, and I'd love to play EveOnline on a tablet

  15. WinHatter

    @Andrew Langhorn

    Thanks to Player_16 for posting that "advisor" link.

    No wonder why this stuff is butt ugly, such a bunch of mingers could never come up with anything aesthetic.

    That answers why Apple are not doing anything aboot it ... they still haven't noticed it's a Mac.

  16. John Smith Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    2 questions

    Mass? Battery life?

    Why do companies persist in believing people will cough up £2k for this form factor?

    Provisional thumbs up as it is not Windows. But other than that.....

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ Mike Fluggenock

    You can rotate the screen on almost any Mac with an ATi graphics chip in it from the past 5 or so years - even my Powerbook supports that. You might have to toggle a hidden preference to be able to do it, or install the ATi utility, but it is very easy to do.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Edit @ Mike Fluggenock

    ... however, I don't know if it possible with the NVIDIA GPU in a MacBook, but I can't imagine why it wouldn't be.

  19. Juan Inamillion

    The Price

    Come you lot be realistic ffs. £2k for a computer AND a tablet - built in. Please show me how you could achieve a similar result (using the same specifications - not a f**king Asus PeeCee or something) for much less.

    As for the form factor. You don't like it? Then design your own to use the guts of the MacBook and the Axiotron tablet, set up production and tooling, then the assembly, then...oh, err how many million quid is that already?

    It's obviously not going to satisfy the fuss pots who want the most elegant Apple design, whatever the cost, or the twunts who have their 'kill response" button activated when they see any kind of Apple product. It's a one-off niche product that could be very useful to small market. If you can't ever see yourself using one then ignore it. A reasonable comment such as @Consider the following: made above is surely much more helpful than the volumes of bile that seem to wash through from every schoolboy with an internet connection.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh FFS

    Hello Apple are you paying attention? People keep doing these mobs because they sell and quite a few of us want one that comes direct from Cupertino so we can have the benefit without having to forfeit the warranties on our computers. Please get with the program.

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